Open Heart One Shots (Choices)

Love is Complicated

Summary: Alan Ramsey must reconcile the past when his errant wife returns.

It was a scorcher of a day, with temperatures in the high nineties. Alan Ramsey wiped the back of his neck and unlocked the front door of his house, sighing in relief as he stepped into the cool entryway.

On days like this, he was glad his son had talked him into installing central air conditioning, replacing the ancient window units that had come with the house nearly forty years ago.

Out of habit, Alan toed off his grubby work boots and padded up the stairs in socked feet to shower off the sweat and grime from a long day at work.

A short while later, he grabbed a Sam Adams from the fridge, popped the top off and took a satisfying pull of the cold beer.

Standing in front of the window overlooking the small, overgrown backyard, he rolled the cold bottle between his hands. Time to crank up the lawn mower, he thought absently.

He lifted the bottle to his mouth and paused as the phone on the kitchen counter signaled an incoming call.

These days, the home number was easy prey for telemarketers and robocall spammers. Anyone who wanted to talk to him just called his cell, so he let it go to voicemail.

"Uh... hello.... Alan? It's Louise."

At the sound of the long-forgotten voice on the speaker, the bottle slipped from Alan's hands, foamy beer spilling across the kitchen floor.

Ignoring the mess, he lunged for the phone, managing to pick it up before his ex-wife could hang up.

"Louise? I'm here," he said, slightly out of breath.

Alan had complicated feelings about the woman who had walked out on him and their son twenty-five years ago. He thought he'd buried them long ago—by the time the ink on their divorce papers had dried.

But hearing her voice now brought everything rushing back: hope tangled with despair, love battling disappointment; a bittersweet reflection of their relationship, with all its highs and lows.

Despite everything, he had never been able to stop loving her. In his mind, she was still the girl he'd fallen head over heels for in high school. She had been exciting, a bit of a rebel, and she had made him want to be one too. And then everything changed when she became pregnant.

Alan had watched the restlessness take root even as he was content to settle into family life. Money was often tight, and she picked up extra shifts, until she was home less and less. Then, one day, she wasn't there at all.

He waited for her to come back—longer than he should have—if not for himself, then for their son. But Louise never looked back, and eventually, Alan had to accept that some things weren't meant to be.

Now she was calling, and just like that, the years fell away.

Still, his voice was older now, and he heard the weariness in hers. She was no longer the vivacious woman in the yellow dress who had kissed him under the mistletoe as Nat King Cole played on the radio.

"How are you?" he asked, shaking off the memory.

"I'm alright," she replied. "Still working for the cable company?"

Alan heard the slight derision she didn't bother to hide. Louise had never understood his contentment, or how he didn't feel the need to fix what wasn't broken. It was something she and Ethan had in common, though his son appreciated the value of hard work.

So, he simply said, "Yes," and waited for her to explain why she was calling after all this time.

Maybe she's sick, he thought, a tightness creeping into his chest at the idea of losing her again.